Smartphones

Let us just suppose for a few moments that the original three episodes of the ‘little known’ space saga by the name of Star Wars did not exist so that we could be able to concentrate and focus on the other aspects of the films. However, the original trilogy, was, is and will always be cherished, treasured and loved by the millions and billions of its huge base of fans scattered all over the globe.

It doesn’t matter who your favorite character might be, or even if you are inclined towards Star Trek, you are sure to admit that the garbage bin shaped little metal midget, and popular as the R2D2 is one of the most loved and acknowledged characters in the history of science fiction. The little creature, which has the capability to stream video messages just by using its tiny eyeballs, that has the enormous strength to hold anything, including a spacecraft, and so much more is something that makes. And that is one of the reasons why the Limited Edition R2D2 Motorola Unlocked Droid 2 for Verizon Wireless will, by all probability be one of the most impressive and headline making device that will be released in all of the year 2010.

However, no details are available as of now about the exact date of its release or how much this little gem of a device will be priced at, but sources close to the company reveal that phone will not cost more than the usual $200 for the two year contract, albeit after a discount of $100, not that it would matter too much because even if it cost a bucket load of cash, there are plenty of geeks obsessed with Star Wars who would go to any extent to get their hands on anything even remotely associated with it.

Valentine’s Day may be long gone, but the spirit of love seems to still be there with Sprint, who are giving their Premier Customers the opportunity to reserve their own Unlocked Samsung ( Epic 4G). While others will have to wait for some time to get a chance to be able to reserve the Epic 4G for themselves, this is one opportunity that the Premier Customers of Sprint would just hate to pass on. If you are one of those few, lucky enough to be Premier Customers of Sprint check the inboxes of your e-mail accounts as soon as you can, so that you don’t miss out on this once in a lifetime opportunity.

Now, we do know that many of you technology freaks out there have been eyeing the Epic 4G ever since the announcement of its launch. Sprint has put out a comparison just for those fans, which pits the Samsung Epic 4G and the HTC EVO 4G. Although Android is the common feature of both the devices, EVO trumps the Epic with the latest version of the Google platform on board, and is also WiMax enabled. The Epic has a QWERTY keypad that slides out where as the EVO’s keypad is on board the screen itself, that functions on touch. The EVO, however, will cost you around $199, which is not so bad for all the features that it offers. Again, the Epic 4G will push you back by $249, (the rates are after rebate) which raises a very basic question. Is it worth paying the additional $50 for a phone that just offers a few extra features and because it is a variant of the Samsung Unlocked Galaxy S? Critics say it would not be a bad investment either; however, a few more adjustments would have made it much more tempting.

It seems that Verizon, like Sprint, will charge an extra amount between $10 and $15 for using the data service of 4G LTE of the carrier-which is to be added to the data plan that exists in case of compatible devices. It is not at all surprising for us, but the reaction of the customers towards this drastic rise in fees will be interesting.

It is expected of Verizon to begin bringing 4G network of nascent to laptop (through data cards of USB) and after that the LTE enabled Unlocked Smartphone which will be in the market sometime during the initial half of the year 2011, if possible in the month of May. Motorola and Verizon are also rumored to launch Android Tablet that is FiOS-enabled before the end of the year. Since it will be a very expensive affair to launch a worldwide network, Verizon actually justifies the fee that is extra. But we are bound to agree that these types of infrastructural roll outs are much expensive, even more than T-Mobile USA’s upgrades of software.

The John Killian Verizon CFO said at the conference of Oppenheimer & Co. in Boston in this week,” Customers will pay for quality and premium service and premium speed”. The users will be facing the similar dilemma they faced in case of Sprint when it offered users of EVO 4G a service of premium not even available in the area you live in. It is pointed out by Verizon that even if the customer is not living in any 4G area, Sprint charges monthly premium of $10 for 4g Smartphone uses of EVO. Therefore, the 4G premium has link with to not just performance, but also coverage.

Thanks to that, AT&T and Verizon are nearly same I case of monthly bills, but because of this new fee hike; Big Red will become the carrier who is most expensive in US. T-Mobile has a need to upgrade the HSPA+ network of them to keep up with others.

It was only a year back, when Gangster: West Coast Hustle was released by Gameloft. The obvious inspiration for it was the Grand Theft Auto series by Rockstar Games. And as it seems, Gameloft has again been ‘inspired’ by the series and will be launching the follow up Gangster: Miami Vindication in a few weeks.

The backdrop of the game is beautiful Miami. The game is said to be full of unrestricted environments where you will be required to take up missions, with a combination of action and driving sequences and so you better brush up on those skills of yours phone. As it was with its predecessor, here also, you will be required to brawl, steal, kill i.e., get involved with a number of criminal activities as you advance through the game. The company has promised to surpass all previous levels of 3D graphics, as it looks to take advantage of the new Retina Display technology in the iPhone 4.

A trailer of the upcoming game was released by the company also to give gamers a sneak peak of what is to come, what they could expect from the game. The trailer looks promising, although some of the vehicles lack a few minor details, as well as some of the characters which could have been made to be much more detailed. Knowing these kinds of games lack details in its characters, it is very difficult to understand how even the Retina Display of the Unlocked iPhone 4 will help with the lack of quality in vehicles and models of characters.

Gangster: West Coast Hustle was very enjoyable and was immensely popular and those who loved the original game are surely looking forward to the new one, however, with such low key details, it might be hard for the company to keep hold of its fan base.

As the BlackBerry unlocked 9800 Torch and Motorola DROID 2 go head to head it seems that both AT&T as well as Verizon will be laughing their way to the bank. The DROID 2 is being distributed by Verizon and the time for pre-sale has passed with Verizon now stocking up the sets in their stores with people queuing to get their hands on one of these sets.

The D2 is offered by Verizon for a price of $199 that is after calculating a $100 rebate for mail-in orders or an online discount for an agreement for a two year agreement. A purchase in-store will help you avoid any waiting for the deliveries of the set but will instantaneously increase your up-front costing. Simply put $100 rebates are valid for purchases made in-store and purchases made online only. Purchases from any third party retailer will cost you $299.

For those looking to upgrade to the DROID 3 as soon as it releases, the 20 month default contract length will be a hindrance so as a recommendation go for the one-year contract which will allow you to upgrade before you apply for the next contract. Any one who owns the original Verizon Motorola Unlocked DROID will fill you in on the pains of an upgrade if you wish to do so in the contract period. Despite Verizon’s end-of-year upgradation plan, contractual issues prevent D1 owners who are on two-year agreements find an upgrade to D2 a difficult affair to say the least.

A one year plan on the D2 will cost you $269 after a %100 rebate which is a $70 hike on the two year plan but the deal is you still get to upgrade to the D# with ease. A monthly plan will push the price of your D2 to a pricey $559. A termination fee of $350 applies for early cancellation of contract and a minimum requirement of a data plan worth $29.99 per month is also set up in the terms and conditions. Complications galore, but the set may well be worth it.

Though available in the United Kingdom since June, Dell Streak unlocked cell phone is yet to land itself in USA. But many users are not aware of what they have been missing as the Streak only runs on Android 1.6. But there is good news after all this, as it is expected that the Streak will be running on a superior version of the Operating System.

If you have already presumed that it’s the Android 2.2 Froyo, then you’re wrong. It’s the Éclair; Android 2.1– Google has the knack of coming up with catchy nicknames for their cell phone operating systems. Right now we don’t have the option to make a choice, because the Android 2.1 is after all an improvement from 1.6. Many users will be joyous about the features that the Éclair will provide them. The keyboard for example has undergone massive improvement.

The Éclair also takes social networking a notch higher as it allows users to synchronise contacts with selected social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. It is also possible to get live wallpapers, though this is not an exceptional feature, but they do promise to look good on the large display of 5 inches of the Streak.

Éclair is presumed to be loaded with the Streak, as and when it launches in the USA. It would be advisable for Dell to do that as some smartphones have by now upgraded to Froyo Operating Systems. And, the bigger version of Streak headed for us who will assumable have the Android 2.2 pre-installed, Streak has to build up the excitement to make people expect better things from Dell. The modified Streak, promising to launch in the later part of the year, I would wait and look out for what comes out of the competition.

But immediately we can only hope that the Streak comes as early as possible.

The race is on to have the first working 4G network in USA, between MetroPCS, the little operator that could, and Verizon Wireless, while WiMAX is out of the question. During its last news conference, Chief Executive Officer Roger Linquist provided some information: Samsung SCH-r900 that is exceptionally difficult to pronounce and even more difficult to write, is the Samsung Craft. Its price is likely to be around $300. Though the operating system of the phone is currently not known, our guess is that it’s running Android.

The LTE network will launch initially in two markets: Dallas Fort Worth region of Texas and Las Vegas, Nevada, said Linquist. Just to inform you of how little of a company MetroPCS is, the number of customers is just 7 million, comparing that to Verizon’s 92 million customers which is more than 13 times of MetroPCS, and it becomes clear the difficulty Verizon faces to get their network functioning. Early 2011 is the expected time for the upgrade to LTE.

Nothing was mentioned about expected speeds of the cell phone. Verizon is expecting their LTE network to transfer data at rates of 6 to 12 megabits per second; on the other hand Clearwire is expected to deliver speeds of 20 to 70 megabits per second. 10 megabits per second is the speed T-Mobile with HSPA+ is providing today and according to rumours, their upgrade will result in producing speeds double or triple of what they are producing now.

With latencies much lower than preceding wireless technology, it’s also snappier, thus speed isn’t the only positive side of LTE. It is also much more capable in connecting more customers to towers already in place. These little improvements should accumulate to create a wireless experience that is miles ahead of what’s already available.

After Sweden and Norway, Japan is expected to get LTE in December and if things move smoothly as planned America doesn’t look much far behind either!

If you have a new Unlocked iPhone 4 that has gone on carrier lockdown because you put your phone through jailbreak then do not worry as the developers of the iPhone now have come up with that little something that will help you to carrier unlock your jail broken Apple iPhone 4. The team from Apple has said that they will be updating their ultrasn0w unlock utility with help from their Cydia jailbreak applications store which will make unlocking your phone a breeze. However we are still not yet fully convinced about why we should use ultrasn0w. Let us look at the possibilities of this application.

This application will allow the users to easily unlock the phone which otherwise will be locked to a particular carrier on the GSM network which is AT&T in the USA. What is more important to note is that when this phone will be unlocked you can use this device on any network around the world where you can just use the local SIM card and put it into the phone and start it up. This is something which all of the users of this phone have been wanting as Apple and AT&T’s deal meant that the consumers were largely bound by this contract where they would have to be on AT&T. It is something which is very needed for consumers who do not travel the globe too as it is always a good feeling to have the phone all to yourself and be able to use it according to your wishes. Before unlocking your device, you need to jailbreak your phone using the necessary means.

Fire up Cydia and look for ultrasn0w application and in no time you will get an iPhone 4 which is unlocked and free to use with any kind of GSM service around the world.

It has been recently announced that New York City will now be connected fully with internet no matter where you go. After Transit Wireless through there revolutionary CEO Alex Mashinsky pushed through the plans to get Wi-Fi in the New York subway network, are now planning on getting Wi-Fi into the one thousand odd livery cars which are operating in New York City. This plan is expected to be completed by the fall this year and there are more plans to expand the network of these vehicles as soon as possible. In a recent statement given to the press, Mashinsky commented on their plans to expand the network of vehicles where he said that they were looking at a major expansion in this regard. The verdict is still out however on the effectiveness of the Wi-Fi network in the subways. However, looking at the constructive way in which they have set up this plan, it seems quite encouraging.

When this network gets underway, you will be able to use your Wi-Fi capable machine to get to your email, social networking page and other applications in places where you could not do so earlier. Probably one of the biggest concerns about this network is the reliability of the signal when the car will be in transit on the roads and through areas where the signal quality is not really good. This plan has been welcomed by a huge section of the technological fraternity.

There are some issues with regards to connection where the phones automatically reconnect with the new towers when they change locations. However, what happens with the Wi-Fi is that the user will have to reconnect manually. However, Transit Wireless believes that this issue should be solved in the next generation of wireless internet devices which will make it much easier to get Wi-Fi on the streets.

As the release of the Unlocked Motorola Droid has caught the attention of the entire world of the smartphone, we have got reports that Samsung and carriers Verizon Wireless are engaged in finalizing their agreement where they will release the Fascinate which is Verizon’s version of the Galaxy S and Gem which are the two most popular Android phones which are currently out in the market. We have got some great details of the release and more which we can tell you about. Above all, one needs to know that these phones have succeeded in a major way in the international market and this release with Verizon is just going to put it at a notch higher than what it was for this phone. Sales are expected to be higher because of this fact that people are already pretty familiar with this phone and therefore are well aware of the specs for this device.

Other major networks in the country are also pretty much hyped about the release of the Samsung Unlocked Galaxy S (variants) where there have been carriers like T-Mobile who are have already come up with their variations of the Galaxy S. The T-Mobile Vibrant and the AT&T Captivate are some of the variants which are there in the market. As for the Verizon variant, this phone has specs which are pretty similar to the other ones. The most eye catching feature will definitely be the WVGA super AMOLED screen and the 5 megapixel camera without forgetting the pretty strong 1GHz Hummingbird processor. You will also get the capability to record 720p HD video and the Android 2.1 platform with the Touchwiz 3.0 UI is however slightly changed for the Verizon as it now comes with a metallic body which just adds to the look of the phone. We however do not know much about the Gem which is set to launch with Verizon only in September.